Toyota posts record net profit in '03

OsamuTsukimori

TOKYO (CBS.MW) -- Toyota Motor on Tuesday posted the highest ever annual group net profit by a Japanese company as its sales increased in all major markets around the world in the business year ended in March.

After the Tokyo market's close Tuesday, Toyota
TM, -0.77%
(7203) , the world's second-biggest automaker after General Motors
GM, -0.52%
, said net income for the year ended March 31 jumped 54.8 percent to 1.162 trillion yen ($10.3 billion), or 342.86 yen a share, up from 750.9 billion yen, or 211.32 yen a share, a year earlier.

As widely expected, Toyota became the first Japanese company to pass the 1 trillion yen profit mark, with most analysts expecting around 1.1 trillion yen.

The company did not forecast its group earnings for the current fiscal year ending March 2005.

But analysts polled by Bloomberg predicted net income of 1.03 trillion yen, down about 11 percent from last year.

Toyota did estimate its unconsolidated net income for this year to be 520 billion yen, down from 581.47 billion yen a year earlier.

In the year just ended, Toyota's group vehicles sales, which includes sales by Daihatsu Motor Co. (7262), Japan's second-biggest minicar maker, and Hino Motors, Japan's biggest truck maker, rose 9.9 percent to a record 6.719 million vehicles. Toyota forecast its sales to grow this year to 7.02 million units.

U.S. sales increased 6.1 percent to a record 2.1 million vehicles, due to robust sales of its popular models such as Sienna, Lexus RX 330 and Corolla. Sales grew 15.8 percent to 898,000 vehicles in Europe. Domestically, Toyota sold 2.3 million vehicles, up 3.8 percent from a year earlier.

Toyota raised its year-end dividend, bringing the total annual dividend to 45 yen a share, up 9 yen from a year ago.

Shares of Toyota closed flat at 3,760 yen in Tokyo. The Nikkei Average was up 0.3 percent.

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